Aus: A Voyage to Lilliput, von Jonathan Swift

It began upon the following occasion.

It is allowed on all
hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs before we
eat them, was upon the larger end: but his present Majesty's
grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg,
and breaking it according to the ancient practice,
happened to cut one of his fingers.
Whereupon the Emperor his father published an edict,
commanding all his subjects, upon great
penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs[8].

The people so highly resented this law,
that our Histories tell us there have been six rebellions
raised on that account, wherein one Emperor lost his
life, and another his crown[9].
These civil commotions
were constantly formented by the monarchs of Blefuscu, and when
they were quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge
to that Empire[10].

It is computed, that eleven thousand persons
have, at several times, suffered death, rather than submit
to break their eggs at the smaller end.
Many hundred large volums have
been published upon this controversy: but the books of the Big­Endians
have been long forbidden[11],
and the whole party rendered incapable
by law of holding employments[12].

During the course
of these troubles, the emperors of Blefuscu did frequently expostulate
by their ambassadors, accusing us of making a
schism in religion, by offending against a fundamental doctrine of our
great prophet Lustrog, in the fifty­fourth chapter of the Brundecral
(which is their Alcoran).
This, however, is thought to be a mere
strain upon the text: for their words are these; That all
true believers shall break their eggs at the convenient end: and
which is the convenient end, seems, in my humble opinion,
to be left to every man's conscience, or at least in the power of
the chief magistrate to determine.